The Princess’s Order I Couldn’t Disobey

“Lieutenant Salgado, you are hereby assigned to the personal escort of the heir to the throne. You will accompany her at every official event and, in five days’ time, you will board the training frigate where the princess will complete her naval instruction.”

The admiral told me this without looking up from his papers, as if he were sending me to scrub decks. I had three decorations for missions where I’d put my life on the line, and suddenly I’d been assigned to play nanny to some palace brat. I left the office not knowing whether it was a reward or a sentence.

When I boarded the frigate Argonauta, the heir had already been aboard for several days. A petty officer told me to report at once to the royal cabin: the princess wanted to meet her new shadow. I walked down the metal corridor in my freshly pressed uniform, knocked twice, and entered at attention.

“Ma’am. Lieutenant Salgado reporting for duty.”

I snapped my heels together, chin high, eyes front, as regulations required.

“Are you really going to serve me?” she asked, drawing out every word. “Will you do everything I order you to do?”

I lowered my gaze for a second and realized the girl wasn’t so much of a girl. She was barely over twenty, but there was something in the way she looked that was anything but innocent. She wore a thin T-shirt, with nothing underneath, clinging to small, firm breasts. A pair of shorts outlined her wide hips and a strip of bare skin at her waist. She was beautiful. Stunning. Her eyes were such a pale blue they looked like glass, and her full lips she bit slowly while waiting for my answer.

You’re a soldier, not a kid. Forget what’s between your legs.

I repeated it to myself like an order, trying to keep the blood where it belonged.

“Aren’t you going to say anything, Lieutenant?” she insisted, tilting her head.

“At your orders, ma’am. That’s what I’m here for.”

She smiled in a way I didn’t like at all. Or liked too much.

“Good. Then lock that door.”

I obeyed. The click of the bolt sounded louder than it should have in that small cabin, paneled in dark wood and with a single porthole letting in the white light of the open sea.

“And now,” she went on, stepping closer, “I want to check something. They say officers like you aren’t afraid of anything. Take off your jacket.”

“Ma’am, that doesn’t fall within my…”

“That’s an order, Lieutenant. Or are you going to disobey your princess on the first day?”

I swallowed. I’d been given absurd orders in my career, but none like that. And yet my hands were already undoing the gold buttons. I took off my jacket and folded it over the back of a chair, as if I still wanted to pretend there was some protocol to this.

“The shirt too,” she said, dropping onto the edge of the bunk.

***

I took off my shirt. The princess ran her eyes over me from top to bottom without hiding it, while her fingers played with the hem of her own T-shirt. The frigate rolled gently, and with each sway she lifted the fabric a little higher.

“You’ve got a good body for a babysitter,” she murmured. “Go on.”

“Ma’am, I assure you this…”

“Shut up and obey. I like it when strong men learn to keep quiet.”

I had spent my life obeying chains of command, and I recognized in her voice that authority that brooks no argument. Only this order wasn’t coming from a superior with insignia, but from a barefoot woman biting her lip while she pulled her shirt over her head. Her breasts were bared, nipples raised, pink, hard as if they were cold. They weren’t.

The cabin smelled of salt and her perfume, a mixture that lodged itself deep in my throat. Outside, the dull hum of the engines could be heard and, from time to time, the sailors’ voices on deck. In here, though, everything had been reduced to her breathing and mine, both becoming harder and harder to hide.

I couldn’t help it. The erection came like a betrayal, pressing against the fabric of my trousers. I cursed myself inwardly.

“Well,” she laughed, delighted by the effect she was having, “looks like the lieutenant is paying attention after all. Come here.”

I took a step. She stood, placed a hand on my bare chest, and gently pushed me back until my legs hit the bunk.

“Lie down. That’s an order.”

I let myself fall backward onto the narrow mattress. The princess finished undressing without rushing, enjoying every second in which I could do nothing but watch her. She climbed on top of me, astride, and leaned down until her hair brushed my face.

“I’m your lady,” she whispered into my ear, “and I order you to stay still. I want to do this my way.”

She moved down my body leaving a trail of slow kisses, and when she reached the end she freed my erection from the fabric with a skill that had nothing inexperienced about it. She took it in those full lips she’d been biting all conversation long, and started moving up and down without taking her blue eyes off mine.

“I love it,” she said, breaking away for just an instant. “Best I’ve ever tried, Lieutenant.”

And she went back to work, one hand at the base and her tongue tracing circles that made me clench my teeth to keep from breaking the order to stay still. A strand of saliva slipped from the corner of her mouth and she didn’t even bother wiping it away. She liked the mess. She liked the power.

***

When she noticed I was getting too close, she sat up abruptly.

“Not yet. I didn’t give you permission.”

She sat on me, but didn’t let me enter her. Instead, she began rubbing against my erection, sliding back and forth, soaking me without allowing penetration. She felt warm, slippery, utterly surrendered to the game and at the same time the absolute master of every movement.

“I can’t let you put it in from the front,” she panted, quickening the pace. “I have to arrive a virgin for the state wedding. Those are the rules. But the rules don’t say anything about this.”

She ground harder, threw her head back, and a shiver ran through her whole body.

“Yes… like that… I’m going to come… ah!”

She stayed still on top of me for a few seconds, breathing hard, a look of satisfaction lighting up her entire face. Then she slowly turned around, braced her hands on the bunk, and showed me her back.

“Do you like what you see, Lieutenant?”

I didn’t answer. There was no need. I had in front of me a perfect ass, round and firm, and she knew exactly what she was doing.

“Having to arrive intact doesn’t mean you can’t serve me back here,” she said, parting her buttocks with her hands. “Consider it part of your duties.”

My erection was completely lubricated by her. I lined up the tip and the princess pushed back, eager, until I slid in with barely any resistance. She let out a low, satisfied moan and lowered her head until her forehead rested on the mattress.

I held her hips with both hands, still not quite daring, like someone afraid of breaking something that didn’t belong to him. She felt my hesitation and turned her face to look at me over her shoulder, eyes narrowed.

“More,” she ordered. “Don’t do things halfway, I didn’t take you for a coward.”

I dug my nails into my palm to keep control and started moving, slowly at first, then to the rhythm she herself set with her hips. The heir directed every thrust the way she directed everything else: with a confidence that disarmed me. I, who had given orders to entire platoons, found myself obeying the sway of her body as if it were the only regulation that mattered.

“That’s it, Lieutenant… that’s how you serve your princess properly.”

***

I held out as long as I could, but there comes a point when the body pays no attention to ranks or protocol.

“I’m going to…” I began.

“Not inside there,” she cut in, pulling away and turning with feline agility. “I want to see it. Come on my face, I order you to.”

She knelt in front of me on the bunk floor and lifted her chin. Those blue eyes looked up at me from below with a mixture of command and desire that finished me off. It took just a couple of strokes.

Pleasure tore through me from top to bottom and I spilled everything over her parted lips. She didn’t even close her eyes. She accepted every drop like a tribute, then licked her lips slowly, still smiling, while one strand trickled from the corner of her mouth.

“I knew you’d be a good one,” she said, dragging her thumb across her lip and then sucking it. “The others got nervous. You know how to obey.”

I was left speechless, lying there, heart pounding, my uniform a crumpled mess on the chair. The princess stood up as if nothing had happened, put her shirt back on, and in an instant was once again the impeccable heir the kingdom expected to see.

“We’ve got three weeks of training at sea left, Lieutenant,” she added, opening the latch on the door. “I trust you’ll carry out all your duties. All of them.”

I sat up as best I could and, by pure force of habit, snapped back to attention, still half-dressed.

“At your orders, ma’am.”

She gave me one last look over her shoulder, with that smile that was anything but innocent.

“I hope so. Rest up, Lieutenant. You’ll need it.”

And she walked out into the corridor with her back straight and her chin high, leaving me there, wondering how the hell I was going to survive that voyage without completely losing my mind. Three combat missions had not taught me what that woman taught me in a single afternoon: that the worst order of all is the one you want to obey.